in this video we're talking about how
starting a blog and putting myself out
there on the internet has completely
changed my life and how it can do the
same for you hey friends welcome back to
the channel if you're new here my name
is Ali I'm a doctor based in Cambridge
and around five years ago I made the
plunge to putting myself out there and
started my personal blog so since
basically my first year of University I
knew I wanted to start some kind of blog
I knew I wanted to start writing on the
internet but I had all of these fears
around it that I just could never really
quite get over like firstly there was
the fears around actually starting
writing online in the first place and it
was things like you know what the hell
am I going to write about why would
anyone read what I have to say surely if
my friends and family discovered that
I've got a personal blog that I've been
writing online and they're going to make
fun of me and they're going to think I'm
a terrible person and I had this real
barrier towards writing anything which
was that there was nothing that I was
going to produce that was original I was
stuck on this thing of having to be
original thinking that you know
everything out there has already already
been written about I'm interested in
Tech I kind of like productivity but
there's a zillion Tech blogs and
productivity blogs and YouTube channel
like what the hell am I as a 20 year old
medical student going to to contribute
towards this wider World there was fear
of perfectionism you know what if my
what if my article sucks what if people
think it's awful what if my grammar is
bad or even worse what if 10 20 years
down the line some employer who wants to
try and hire me as a doctor sees the
fact that I've started a Blog and is
like wait a minute why did you start a
blog in 2012 or 2013 like I had all
these like stupid fears in my mind and
for a solid like four or five years
these fears stopped me from putting
myself out there online they stopped me
from right from starting a blog from
writing a single word but then on the
2nd of January 2016 so basically five
years ago I discovered this book show
your work by Austin Cleon and this book
single-handedly changed my life and it's
actually the book that I have most
gifted out of any other book that I've
ever read I keep multiple copies of this
book in the house because often if I'm
talking to people and they come over and
they ask me for advice about anything at
all it's always around oh my God I'm
scared to put myself out there and I
just give them this book it's really
short it's really easy to get through
and it was just completely
groundbreaking for me and helping me get
over these various fears that I had and
actually taking the plunge into writing
on line and one of the things I really
like about this book is that it's really
a guide to self-promotion for people who
absolutely hate the idea of
self-promotion like I used to think
self-promotion was like a dirty thing
and oh my God ugh if I put myself out
there on the internet what are people
going to think but the way he talks
about it is that it's not it's not about
self-promotion it's about showing your
work now if you imagine for example if
you're watching me as a YouTuber you're
probably interested in the behind the
scenes of what it's like being a
YouTuber and therefore if I were to
write about that on my blog you know do
a little like diary type thing where I'm
like hey so I'm filming this video and
this is what the script looks like and
this is what the finished product looks
like and these are kind of the notes
that I made and this is the thought
processes and the diagrams that I made
to get to the point of the finished
product that's actually quite
interesting and you know in the past
when the internet wasn't really a thing
people couldn't really get a behind the
scenes look at other people's work it
would be like a writer would go into
their cave and write a book and come out
with a book or an artist would go into
their cave and do a painting but
everyone wants to see how the painting
is made they want to see how the sausage
is proverbially created and so really
starting a blog is not about having to
come up with hey I need to write
something interesting it's actually just
about documenting the stuff that you're
doing already now I was a medical
student at the time and so I could have
very easily documented what life as a
medical student was like and in fact
that's what I started doing on my
YouTube channel like five years later I
was reading loads of books back in the
day and so I could have documented the
books that I was reading and sort of
sharing my thoughts about them and
writing book reviews and in fact people
often ask me what's what's like one
regret or that you have or what's one
piece of advice you'd give to yourself
10 years ago and my answer is always I
really wish I'd started a Blog earlier
and I wish I'd just been writing reviews
of books that I'd read I first read this
five years ago but I don't know what my
thoughts and feelings were when I read
this because I just didn't document them
and it would be so interesting now to
look back on I don't know you know the
four-hour work week which I wish I read
at the age of 17 and how it changed me
but I don't have any of that and I
really wish I had documented things on a
personal blog as I was going throughout
my life the other big fear I had was
that this thing of I you know I need to
be an expert I'm not an expert on
anything therefore how can I possibly
write about it and chapter one of this
book says you don't need to be a genius
you don't need to be an expert to share
your process and to document your work
and to show how you're learning stuff
you can completely Embrace The
Beginner's mindset I'm a beginner you
know on YouTube I'm a beginner I don't
know anything about productivity I'm
just documenting the stuff that I'm
learning and I'm like hey guys you know
here are some tips I found helpful for
me if you find them helpful maybe you
know you'll enjoy watching this video or
something like that and so if you're
watching this right now thinking oh but
I'm not an expert to anything I don't
you know therefore I can't write about
it just like Embrace being a beginner
someone who is a beginner is often so
much better at teaching other people who
are beginners than someone who's an
expert C.S Lewis calls this the curse of
knowledge it's like when you become so
pro at something you forget what it was
like to be a beginner at it and so like
right now I'm a total beginner at
learning how to draw and trying to learn
concept art I'm taking art lessons and
I'm documenting my process thanks to
Austin cleanlin's book show your work on
Instagram and Twitter and stuff and I'm
even gonna do like a little journey blog
post on my website because right now I
am not at all an expert in art my art
absolutely sucks I'm a total beginner
but if you're thinking of getting
started in art you might be interested
to be like hey how is a total beginner
approaching this and what does the
progression look like from not being
able to draw anything towards being able
to draw things that look kind of nice
and so it really is all about showing
your work the other big worry that I had
was that what are my friends and family
going to think if I start a blog and
I've got my own domain at alibdar.com
and that again was just stupid because a
no one actually cares like we all think
that other people are looking at us and
judging us but actually everyone is
worried about their own life no one
cares I have a video up there about how
to tackle imposter syndrome and really
if you think about it like let's say
you've got a friend right now or a
cousin or a brother or something and
they're thinking hey I want to learn the
piano and I'm going to write about my
journey of trying to learn the piano
would you really judge them for that you
probably wouldn't you'll be like oh
that's kind of cool you wouldn't
criticize them you wouldn't judge them
you wouldn't think they're an absolute
freaking idiot for having the audacity
to Post online you would think oh that's
kind of cool it's cool that you're
documenting your journey I want to
follow along and so it's completely
ridiculous how we all have this idea
that hey other people are going to judge
me but if we imagine ourselves in those
other people's position we think yeah I
wouldn't judge anyone starting a blog or
for starting an Instagram documenting
the art journey I think it's kind of
cool let's talk about how this has
actually changed my life now and there's
kind of three main things I want to talk
about firstly is the idea of a
Serendipity vehicle this is a term that
my friend David perrell has coined I'll
link to his YouTube channel and his
writing course which is very good down
in the video description the way you
want to imagine it is imagine you're
living in a village the only people you
interact with are the other people in
your village and occasionally a train
comes by and someone visits the village
and you kind of have a chat to them and
stuff but like you're really limiting
the amount of people you could possibly
have connections with you're limiting
the amount of people you can be friends
with you're limiting the Serendipity
that can happen to you because you've
just you're just surrounded by this tiny
village of people now imagine if you
were the sort of person who you know
once a month you took a trip to
neighboring towns and you started
meeting people and saying hello to
people over there and you started
connecting with people who are
interested in the same stuff as you that
just massively exponentially increases
the interesting things that can happen
to you it increases your surface area
for Serendipity and I really like the
metaphor that David Pearl uses about
this which is the idea of robots when
you create 8 and share an idea is you
put your ideas
onto the internet which means that
little robots can basically carry your
ideas and they go dude all around the
world
and then there's people who are sitting
from Malaysia to Mauritius to Algeria
who are scrolling the internet and they
want to learn about whatever it is that
you have written about or created a
video about and when you're sleeping
when you're out playing tennis with your
friends when you're on a walk on the
river you pay no charge and those robots
are like little carrier pigeons that
deliver your ideas to people all over
the world and what's amazing is you can
make something once and the robots will
work for you for the rest of your life
and so as they deliver your ideas to
people Serendipity happens you meet new
people they reach out to you they want
to give you money they want to help you
they have a Consulting project that they
need your help with anything whatever it
is but why I like the word Serendipity
vehicle is what they can imagine with
the ideas that they share are beyond
what you can possibly think of what they
would want and the things that end up
entering your life are things that are
out of the scope of your imagination and
that you couldn't have dreamed up before
and so really when it comes down to it
when you putting your ideas into the
world you're allowing yourself you're
opening yourself up to get all of these
really interesting connections you might
make for friends you might make business
associates you might even meet the
person you marry because of the fact
that you are putting yourself out there
on the internet and you're moving from
this tiny tiny village to suddenly
opening up your network to the entire
world and that is amazing secondly
writing online has changed my life
because it's really helped me get
clarity over my own thoughts and I
realized this back in 2016 when my
company uh six Med wasn't doing
particularly well we've been doing
really well for a few years and then our
growth started to stagnate I had like
all these thoughts and feelings around
this and like feeling sad and feeling
annoyed that you know this company
wasn't doing very well and I had a real
crisis of thinking like what the hell am
I doing with my life what am I doing
with this company am I am I sort of
letting this really good thing go to
waste and I spent ages thinking about
this but it was only when I actually
wrote a blog post about it about this
kind of balance between time and money
which is kind of what it came down to it
was when I wrote a blog post about it
and wrote it publicly and published it
on my blog that helped me solidify and
clarify my own thinking around it and
the cool thing is that by putting myself
out there I connected with Austin Cleon
who wrote the book because I sent him an
email saying thank you this has changed
my life and he actually came on an
interview on my YouTube Channel a few
months ago this is what he had to say
about this idea of clarifying your
thinking what is interesting about
having a blog or some sort of daily
project even if it's like I post one
thing to Instagram every day or do you
know just something little like that
having something that you have to do
every day you find out it's not that you
have something to say it's that you find
out what you have to say
so that's so like writing every day some
people say oh well you must have so much
to say because you're right every day
I'm like actually it's the opposite I
have more to say because I sit down
right every day and I figure out what
I'm thinking and what it actually is
that I have to say so writing is
actually not just a way of communicating
with the world it's actually a way of
communicating with yourself because the
simple Act of sitting down in front of a
keyboard for 45 minutes or pulling out
your notebook for a half hour whatever
it is you are creating space in the day
for you to kind of connect with up with
what's here and to figure out what's
going on and what is it that I really
feel and what is it that I really think
that's something that the beginner has
to get over very quickly is that this
idea like well I don't have anything to
say what am I going to blog about it's
like the the pressure and the routine
and the the muscles of of blogging every
day means that you will get to something
every day and there's loads of other
reasons why writing online changed my
life but the third one and final one I
want to talk about here is the butterfly
effect now the butterfly effect is this
idea that if a butterfly flaps its wings
in like Brazil then the like air
currents produced by that further down
the line can cause a chain reaction that
produces a tornado and so it's just this
idea that like a seemingly small thing
that you do can have a huge effect
further down the line and so the way
that starting a block changed my life is
that it made me okay with putting myself
out there on the internet it gave me the
baby steps to write a few blog posts in
like 2016 and so when it came to 18
months later in 2017 when I thought hey
should I start a YouTube channel I
didn't have that fear I didn't have that
fear of getting started because I'd
already taken the baby steps and started
my personal blog thanks to show your
work and honestly I think if I hadn't
started the blog I probably wouldn't
have started the YouTube channel because
I would have been Paralyzed by the oh my
God I can't put myself out there what if
what if people find out my real name
what if my friends and family see my
YouTube channel what are people gonna
think but because I had 18 months worth
of practice of starting of like writing
online and realizing that no one
actually cares and my friends and family
did not give the slightest toss about
whether I had a Blog I realized I can
start a YouTube channel I can Vlog my
medical school elective I can make
videos about how to get into med school
and no one cares all that does is that
it helps people and that's good and it
can grow my audience and that's why I'm
sitting here talking to you today like
three and a half years later because I
took the plunge into writing online five
years ago in fact fun little fact I
actually went on a zoom date yesterday
uh with someone who I met online who was
watching my videos and so if she and I
end up getting married then that would
have also been down to putting myself
online and starting a blog thank you to
Austin Cleo all right let's briefly talk
about how to actually start writing
online and what to write about so how do
you start well basically you want to
Google free website and you want to make
an account on WordPress which is
completely free or sub stack which is
completely free or you can use ghost
which is the platform that I use it
costs a bit of money but if you're
genuinely serious about starting a blog
that changes your life it's something
that's very much worth investing in but
if you are unable to or if you just have
like this allergic reaction to the
thought of spending money on the
internet you can always use sub stack or
WordPress which are completely free and
in terms of what do I write about uh
this is this is a question I get a lot
um and let's cut to another segment from
David perel over here when you start
writing do not even think about what the
world is going to be interested in
just do what interests you and get to
the place where you're writing about
super Niche topics I mean if there's any
lesson of the internet it is that you
are not the only person interested in
whatever it is that you're interested in
like we know that and the niche topics
honestly are the ones that are going to
give you the best benefits of meeting
cool people and having interesting
things happen so yeah start with the
smallest thing that you possibly can
start with writing about whatever
interests you just document your work
read show your work document your
process document you learning stuff if
you do that plus being slightly active
on Twitter which we're going to talk
about another time then you'll just
connect with other people who are
interested in the same things and you'll
make friends and you'll make business
connections and you'll really enjoy
becoming a global citizen of the
internet so that's all you really need
to get started but if you're interested
in more writing tips from me and from
the authors that I've interviewed on
this YouTube channel over the last year
you should definitely check out the
extended version of this video which is
available on nebula if you haven't heard
nebula is an independent streaming
platform that's built by me and a bunch
of other creators and it's a place where
we can put our content without worrying
about the YouTube algorithm and so for a
video like this where the extended
edition is like 35 40 minutes long it
means I can put that on nebula and not
worry about having to kind of cut things
down bit by bit for YouTube on nebula
you'll find a load of other exclusive
videos created by me and some of my
Creator friends I've got a workflow
Series where I talk through my workflow
for my favorite productivity apps and
you also get early access to all of our
videos completely ad-free and so in the
extended version this ad completely
disappears and instead you'll just get a
load of writing tips from me and the
people that I've interviewed if you want
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kindly sponsoring this video
curiositystream is the world's leading
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platform and they've got thousands of
really high budget high quality
documentaries covering everything you
can possibly think of and actually one
documentary series I've been enjoying
recently is called how to look at a
painting which I'm watching because I've
never really gotten the whole Art
Gallery thing and you know why do people
enjoy looking at paintings but now that
I'm trying to become a concept artist
this is helping me can I get more of an
overview of exactly why this happens and
all the different things to look for in
artwork but the really cool thing is
that Curiosity stream has a bundle with
nebula and so if you sign up to an
account for curiosity stream which is
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sounds up your street and you want to
see the extended version of this video
head over to curiositystream.com forward
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nebula details emailed to you if you
like this video and you're still
struggling with the idea of like oh I'm
scared to put myself out there you might
want to check out this video over here
which is three stories from my life
about how I fight and continue to fight
this idea of imposter syndrome lots of
people have found that useful so you
might want to click on that over there
thank you so much for watching and I'll
see you in the next video bye